Frequently asked questions.

Why should I choose Chatlio?

We are the first live chat solution offering true bi-directional Slack integration. Others claim Slack “integration”, but in reality they are just spamming a Slack channel with links to their own web app. We strongly believe in the trend to minimize and use less tools in general, but still provide the same level of features. Being able to not have to leave Slack to respond to your customers means a more efficient support process for all.

How does it work?

When you setup Chatlio, you pick one of your channels in Slack where you want new messages from your visitors to show. Next you add the Chatlio javascript embed code to the pages on your site where you want the chat widget to show. When somebody chats at you, their first message will be delivered to the “chatlio” channel in Slack. Anyone on your Slack team that is a member of the Chatlio channel can pick up the visitor by clicking on a link taking the conversation to a dedicated Slack channel. Chatting to a visitor is very much like any other Slack conversation: links, emojis, images, code snippets and uploaded files work just the same. Bot and “slash” commands are not sent to the visitor browser.

Are chats persisted as my visitors navigate to different pages on my site?

Yes, Chatlio store up to 200 messages in the visitors browser. The chat history is available after a page is reloaded too, or if they close the browser window and come back later. The only caveat here is that navigation across subdomains will clear the chat history such that the conversation on www.mysite.com is not retained if they navigate to docs.mysite.com.

Can I export transcripts?

Absolutely. At any point during a conversation with a visitor to your site you can issue a command that will export the conversation up to that point and send it as an email. Here’s how to use it:

If you need more control over the transcript data, check out the webhook feature

My users are logged in, can I send in data I know about them?

At any time you can send extra information to Chatlio about your visitor using an API call to _chatlio.identify() in your code. This is a great way to improve the way dedicated channels are named which makes it much easier to keep track of your conversations in Slack.

For example you can send their name and email, or perhaps if they are a returning customer, or what their favorite pet is. Anything that can be of help to your Slack operators as they talk to visitors is useful here.

Chatlio always collects the following information about all visitors you chat with:

Country, city and region. Chatlio uses this to generate a handle and naming.

The dedicated channel. Where on your site they currently are. This data is constantly updated as visitors navigate. Browser and operating system used

Visitor IP address

From within Slack you can query Chatlio for the current info on the current visitor: /chatlio info .

What happens when we’re not online?

Chatlio switches to offline mode for one of the following reasons.

There is no Slack user who is “active” in the Chatlio connected Slack Channel. Chatlio will check status approximately every 30 seconds.

You manually turn off Chatlio by issuing the /chatlio off command in Slack. Type /chatlio on to turn Chatlio back in to automatic status mode.

You set the operating hours you wish to have Chatlio on in Chatlio Dashboard.

When Chatlio is in offline mode you can choose whether to show an email form or hide the widget altogether. Go to Chatlio Dashboard behavior section to configure

I have several websites, can I use Chatlio on all of them?

Sure. It might get a little messy to keep track of which site your visitor is writing from, but if that is not a problem for you, then it’s not a problem for Chatlio either. :)

We prefer a more personal approach and would like to use our Slack user names while chatting to visitors. Is that possible?

Great and sure, there’s a Chatlio command for that! Turn it on with /chatlio operator-name (issue again to toggle). When active, the Chatlio widget will use the operators’ Slack avatar and first name and first letter of their last name.

You can also upload a “team avatar” and configure its use in the Chatlio dashboard. You can opt to show only the team avatar, or use it only before a chat starts (or not at all). See the dashboard for further details.

I run a busy site and I’m worried about getting my sidebar all cluttered with Chatlio conversations. What can I do?

To counter this problem Chatlio archives its channels after 12 hours. If a visitor comes back to chat again after their dedicated channel was archived, Chatlio will un-archive it, complete with all the meta information and chat history.

To help distinguish the Chatlio channels from your regular Slack channels, they are prefixed with a “z-” to force them to the very bottom of the list. If you want to clean up the sidebar before the 12 hour period you can issue a /leave command in Slack at the end of a conversation. Should they come back to chat again, their first message will be sent to the main Chatlio channel where you can re-join the dedicated channel and continue talking. Needless to say, only the channels you actually join end up in the sidebar, meaning that the number of Chatlio channels in a sidebar is the number of conversations you had that day, not the number of conversations for the whole team.

How can I know if any of my team mates replied to a visitor?

When an operator responds to a visitor, we print out a message in the main channel that says "Sally Smith has responded to Mike H."

My restricted team members can’t respond to visitors! Why?

Restricted accounts cannot join Slack channels freely but must be invited by a user with an unrestricted account. Using Chatlio “works” in so far as a regular team member would have to manually /invite @restricted-person to each conversation with visitors. It’s probably going to be pretty frustrating and we advise against it. Chatlio cannot be used with single-channel guest accounts.

What do you mean by unlimited operators?

Chatlio is closely integrated with Slack and all full members of your Slack team can join the Chatlio channel and chat to visitors on your site. On the Basic plan or higher there is no limit on how many people you are on your team, they can all use Chatlio. The Starter plan is limited to 2 operators. This means that a max of two Slack users can be members of the Chatlio channel at any one time (leaving and re-joining is fine).

What do you mean by “conversation”?

A “conversation” is defined as a continuous exchange of messages between the website visitor and the Slack operator where pauses are no longer than 15min.

Why would I need multiple widgets?

On the Basic plan you get a fully featured Chatlio widget that gives you live chat on your site. Sometimes one is not enough though. You might have different sub-teams in your company where some people take care of, say, tech support questions and others deal with pre-sales or accounting questions. For those cases, having additional widgets is a good solution as it allows you to have more than one independently configured widget at the same site. Each widget is connected to its own Slack channel and so the tech support people would get all chats originating on https://example.com/support in their own Slack channel while the pre-sales team gets theirs from other parts of your site.

Can I use Chatlio on multiple domains?

Yes. You can use your Chatlio embed code on any number of sites, no limits. It might make things slightly more difficult for your operators to know where a visitor is coming from but it’s certainly possible and a great solution for some situations.

Can I remove “Powered By Chatlio” link at the bottom?

Does this work with a free Slack account?

Yes. Chatlio does not require a paid Slack account and using Chatlio does not count against your Slack account integration limit. Slack does not charge for the Chatlio bot user. Using Chatlio does not count against the Slack limit of 5 single-channel guest accounts per paid account. Slack does not index more than 10,000 messages for a free account, and this applies to Chatlio conversations as well.

Does Chatlio integrate with ________?

We try to let customer demand drive development here at Chatlio and if you don’t see the integration you need on the features page, then come talk to us (chat or email, or both!) and there’s a good chance we’ll get you sorted soon enough. We know that many of our customers use our webhook in combination with Zapier.